


Love of the Hunt

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-01
Updated: 2004-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 15:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-slash. There's Bible-slash, so why not other gods and/or goddesses? First in a series of four hundred and twenty. Coming soon: Quetzalcoatl/Tezcatlipoca (kidding, I'm kidding). This one, however, is Greek mythology and I accept that Hades is gonna look at me and laugh -- then condemn me to sit in Tartarus and write plebefic for all eternity. All apologies, Hephaestus... I will always remember that Aphrodite chose you, and why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love of the Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> Greek gods and goddesses belong to themselves, and anyone claiming to own them has real issues.
> 
> Danny: If the deities in question don't mind, you should be fine.  
> Me: I'll be sure to ask very nicely. A cease and desist order is nothing compared to being smitten with lightning.

There comes a time in everyone's life where normal becomes boring and a distraction must be sought. Even gods suffer this, although, being gods, they're not allowed to make a big song and dance about it, because if even gods can get bored, where does that leave mortals?

Aphrodite was bored. She visited the oracles at Delphi and listened to wisdom about the future, which ranged from the fact that all the gods would be known forever, to one rather deluded priestess's pronouncement that the world bounced -- she might have been sitting too long in the smoke of the trance-fires. She went down to the Elysian Fields of the underworld and watched the shades of the dead at their revels. She wandered the world, seeing mountains and streams, deserts and seas, grasslands and the wide white stretches of the snowy North. And at last she came to a forest glade, where a young woman was sitting on a rock, stringing a silver bow.

'Who is it who walks in my mountains?' the maiden asked, rising to her feet and looking Aphrodite fearlessly in the eye.

'Don't you know who I am?' Aphrodite asked. 'I am Aphrodite, goddess of love.'

'Then we are well met,' the maiden said, putting her bow down. 'For I am Artemis, and there are those who call me the goddess of the moon, amongst other things.'

'Artemis,' Aphrodite mused. 'Yes, I know you.' She indicated the rock beside Artemis. 'May I join you?'

'For a while,' replied Artemis. 'But soon I hunt, and your heart must be very strong to face the joy of the hunt.'

'Believe me, I would take great delight in joining you,' Aphrodite said. 'I have had little to do with hunting, though, and I don't wish to scare your prey away.'

'Then walk silently with me,' said Artemis, 'and I will try and show you the way of the hunt.' She rose once more, bow properly strung, and drew an arrow from its quiver. 'This way.'

Artemis walked as softly as a whisper under cover of the natural sounds of the forest. Her feet left no marks, and she was constantly alert, looking from left to right, above and below. Aphrodite wasn't sure what to watch for, and so when Artemis stopped abruptly in front of her she almost ran into the maiden's back.

'Hush,' Artemis said, raising one hand. She pointed. 'Through those bushes. A fine stag. See him?' Aphrodite looked and saw a flash of white between the trees as Artemis raised her bow.

'No.'

Artemis looked puzzled. 'But this is the way of the hunt... to kill.'

Aphrodite held out her hands towards the stag, who lifted his head and then moved towards them, and though he surely saw the silver bow in Artemis's hands, he did not stop until his head nudged against Aphrodite's hand, and she stroked his head and scratched behind his magnificent antlers.

'That is a clever trick,' Artemis said. 'But it would take away the fun of the chase if I were to do it.'

'Then you shouldn't do it,' Aphrodite said. She turned to Artemis. 'Your domain is the hunt. It's quite different to mine.'

'But not in every way,' Artemis pointed out. 'Some women pursue men, some men pursue women.'

'True.' Aphrodite looked keenly at Artemis, who did not blush under her gaze, but looked back unwaveringly. 'But you don't pursue men.'

'Why should I? What good is a man to a huntress? My love is for the hunt, not for any mortal. A huntress must be focused on the hunt, not on the attentions of some slovenly being. I wish Callisto had remembered that, but she didn't.'

Aphrodite didn't ask who Callisto was. She knew the story. 'But what if it were another's attentions?' Artemis looked blank, and Aphrodite elaborated. 'What if a woman sought the attentions of a huntress?' Now Artemis understood, and only now did she blush. It was rather becoming.

'Then... then... I don't know.'

Aphrodite put one hand on Artemis's shoulder and laid one light kiss upon her lips. 'You know where to come if you ever wish to find out,' she whispered, and in a breath was gone.


End file.
